By Elizabeth Mwai and Ally Jamah
Kenya has lauded a medical breakthrough in the treatment of Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR TB).
US researchers have discovered the cure for MDR TB by combining two different drugs — meropenem and clavulanate — previously used to treat other diseases.
However, Head of Tuberculosis in the Ministry of Public Health Joseph Sitenei said the combination has to undergo mass trials before it is released in the market.
"But any additional medicine for tuberculosis are welcome because we have very few drugs for treating the disease," said Dr Sitenei, yesterday.
In an interview with The Standard, Sitenei said there are only six drugs for treating TB, including the MDR strain. However, the combinations used for MDR are not easy to take and are highly toxic, with about 60 per cent efficacy.
According to the researchers, the powerful drug combination they have stumbled upon may be able to battle antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis (TB), which has been seen as a growing threat throughout the world.
The initial findings suggest that meropenem and clavulanate, both of which are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to fight bacterial infections, tame some of the most virulent TB strains.
Hardest hit
In the report, published in an issue of Science journal, the group of researchers led by biochemist John Blanchard of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, report test-tube evidence that when used in tandem, meropenem and clavulanate worked against all 13 strains of XDR-TB they tested.
Global reports have seen an increasing number of people have multi-drug resistant (MDR) strains of mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis. Last year, the World Health Organisation reported the highest number of cases ever of about half a million with the former Soviet Union and China being amongst the hardest hit countries.
In Kenya, there are 300 cases of MDR TB that have been reported and, so far, only 46 people put on treatment. The two-year treatment costs Sh1.3 million per person.
Meanwhile, WHO has warned that popular anti-malarial drug artemisinin was developing resistance.
But medics in Kenya allayed fears the country would be affected, saying a treatment combination of the drug was still effective. The resistance to artemisinin has been reported along the border of Thailand and Cambodia.